Seasonal migrant farm workers at the nexus of production and social reproduction in contemporary Turkey

Abstract This paper examines seasonal migrant farmworkers in Turkey, focusing on the intersection of relations of production and social reproduction under rapidly shifting land and labour regimes. The workers are predominantly Kurds and Arabs of Turkey and Syrian refugees, and experience the intersecting crises of neoliberalism, rural-urban migration and conflict/disaster displacement in amplified ways. With an interest in gendered and generational impacts on youth and women’s labour and bodies, we argue that an analysis of social reproduction should include both intra- and inter-household relations as well as kinship/community and ritual-based dynamics such as marriage and childbearing. We show that the intersecting forces of marketisation, family, kinship and the authoritarian state sustain and reproduce seasonal migrant agricultural labour, capitalising on the exploitation of women and youth.